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Living in a Hotel for the Semester

Much to my disappointment, it is not “The Suite Life of Keri and her roommate, Christine.” (They don’t let residents ride on the luggage carts! What a shocker, right?)

But, yes, I am living in a hotel called the New Yorker, located in Midtown. In the hotel, there are about 6 floors that belong to EHS (Educational Housing Services), which is the housing program that the New York Arts Program uses.

I know that I’ve been here for 5+ weeks, but I thought you guys might be curious about where I’m living, so I wanted to devote a whole post to it and supply a few pictures!

My room, which I already stated that I share with my roommate, Christine (who is an awesome gal with pink hair and a passion for comics) overlooks 8th Avenue. It’s a pretty standard dorm setup, with partially lofted beds, desks, and two short dressers. We also have the nice addition of a mini fridge and an attached bathroom!

My room is located on the 9th floor. On the 15th floor is where all the EHS facilities are located, such as the main office, mail room, a lounge, TV room, and a quiet work space.

(Please forgive the slightly darkened pictures; I took them at nighttime when they’re weren’t many people around.)

There’s also a really classy kitchen and a small gym, but I don’t use those enough to take pictures of them (not to mention, I get self-conscious about taking pictures in a public setting).

Fun tidbit for you dog lovers: The Westminster Dog Show was last week at Madison Square Garden (which is literally across the street from the hotel!) and a bunch of the dogs and their owners stayed at the New Yorker. Let me tell you: walking through a lobby full of dogs was a fabulous addition to my day.

And now for the book portion of this blog (because it wouldn’t be a post by me if it didn’t talk about books for a little bit!)… Because I’m technically a student living in NYC, I was able to get a New York Public Library card! This means I now own 3 library cards! Do you see this? New York has 92 branches! I’m swooning.

Last week at the library, I listened to a panel called “Mid-Sentence | Modern Lovers: ChangingFaces in Romance Fiction” which was about the (slow) changing tide in the romance book industry to include more diverse protagonists that accurately reflect its wide range of readers. In my reading, I generally lean towards YA (young adult) and fantasy novels, so I wasn’t all that familiar with the genre, which is why I decided to go! I’m slowly pushing the bounds of my comfort zone, traveling to places by myself and exploring events that favor interests similar to mine, but that are also mixed with something that isn’t familiar to me.

So there you have it: an insight into where I’m living and what I’ve been up to lately. My anxiousness and stress seems to have finally settled, and now with my unlimited metro card, I’m eager to continue expanding the edge of my comfort zone!